Remains found confirmed as Jacob Wetterling/Suspect led LE to Remains #1

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In 2015, Minnesota does not allow polygraph results in court.https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=611a.26
Anybody know about what the books said about lie detectors in 1989-90?

Agreed that you can't build a case on one thing, but how about all the other evidence that cause LE to question DH back in 1989? Does anybody else think that these things shouldn't be looked at again?



There was no other evidence besides the shoe print and tire tread.

And the only reason he was questioned back in 89 was because he was a suspect in (arrested, but never charged) the sexual assault of Jared Scheierl 9 months earlier.

So they had a suspected sexual assault, a similar shoe print and a similar tire print.

You can't get a conviction on that.
 
So much of the account today seems inexplicable but I guess nothing is as inexplicable as the choice to torment and murder a child. I agree with those that have said that the Defendant has portrayed himself is a suspiciously sympathetic light in some aspects of the offense. Contrast what we know was said and done to JS which of course isnt as easily lied about --as JS lived to tell.

I suppose we won't know exactly what was said vertabim unless a transcript was obtained, but this news account makes it sound like he walked back to the site on foot with a shovel? http://bringmethenews.com/2016/09/0...guilty-on-child-*advertiser censored*-charge/

It also seems unbelievable that if he was so skittish about police that he panicked and shot Jacob without really planning to, that he voluntarily returned to the scene with a shovel, stole a bobcat, blah blah when Stearns Co deputies were activated and responding to the abduction that night And then the bothering to dig up and relocate the remains a year later only a short distance away. I guess liars are gonna lie and at least his freedom has ended and everyone knows what he did.

For what it's worth, Paynesville is almost 30 miles away from the scene of the abduction. So it's not like the area would have been crawling with cops or anything.
 
I have a hard time believing that DH didn't abduct and kill other boys after 1989. He's been loose all these years.
 
For what it's worth, Paynesville is almost 30 miles away from the scene of the abduction. So it's not like the area would have been crawling with cops or anything.

Since Paynesville is in Stearns county, probably all deputies on duty to were speeding toward St. Joe to assist. I think they set up road blocks to question people fairly soon.....or they could have even going to a totally unrelated incident.
 
Ok, I'm better now. So is there a transcript of DH's confession? I haven't found one yet. I've compiled one of my own based on news reports:

Transcript

1. Heinrich said that around 8 p.m. he was on a dead-end road when he noticed three boys on bicycles with a flashlight. He said the three boys passed him, so he turned around and faced the direction of the road they would be coming back on. He described pulling into a driveway after they passed him.
2. Twenty minutes later, they passed him again, so Heinrich got out of his car, put on a mask, reached for a revolver and confronted them.
3. Heinrich said the boys offered him the tape they got from the video store, but he knocked it down.
4. Heinrich testified that he jumped out of the car wearing a mask and holding a .38 revolver. He ordered them into a ditch with their bikes and asked their names and ages. "I told Trevor (Jacob's brother) and Aaron (Jacob's best friend) to run away, don't look back or I'll shoot. " Heinrich recalled.

En route between DR’s residence and Paynesville, via some circuitous route:

1. Heinrich then put Jacob in the back of his car and handcuffed him with his hands behind his back. Heinrich said Jacob asked, “What did I do wrong?” (at some point on the trip). Alternative account: Heinrich handcuffed Jacob and put him in the passenger seat of his vehicle. Yet another account has it as: Heinrich said he brought Jacob to his car, handcuffed him and put in the front passenger seat.
2. Heinrich had a police scanner in his vehicle and after hearing police respond to the kidnapping he decided he'd better drive back to his home in Paynesville.
3. Heinrich said he drove out of St. Joseph with the police scanner on the whole time. He ordered Jacob to duck down and lean forward in his seat until they got out of St. Joseph.
4. Heinrich said he drove taking a series of back roads that wound through several small central Minnesota communities and thence to Paynesville and turned off on a sewage pond road, stopping near a gravel pit in the area. Once there, Heinrich said he uncuffed Jacob and took him to a grove of trees.
5. Then, he forced Jacob to disrobe and perform a sexual act on him and asked him to masturbate until Jacob told Heinrich he was cold. In another account it was stated that he said there was no penetration or oral sex. In any case, Heinrich answered, “Ok, you can get dressed”.
6. Afterward, Jacob asked whether he was taking him home. At this point DH became visibly emotional when replied:
7. "I said, 'I can't take you all the way home,'" Heinrich said. "He started to cry. I said, 'Don't cry.'" It is reported that he also said, “it is too far”. It might have been more accurate to say that St. Joseph was too HOT.

The Murder

1. Heinrich then said a patrol car with siren and lights came down the road, and he “panicked.” He said he drew a .38 caliber revolver from his pocket. He said he loaded his revolver with two rounds and told Jacob to turn around because he had to go to the bathroom. [this could be interpreted as he saw police speeding past, then reacted after the police had passed.]
2. “He didn’t know what I was doing,” Heinrich said in court.
3. Heinrich said he raised his gun to the back of Jacob's head and fired one round but the "first shot didn't work." [misfire or empty chamber]. He fired again. Heinrich described how Jacob was still crying after the first round discharged, so he fired again [this leaves unclear whether or not the first round struck Jacob – and is telling]. Heinrich said he fired a third [two discharges total], and Jacob fell to the ground. Heinrich said he checked to see if Jacob was dead.
4. Oddly, Heinrich claimed that he looked away when he fired the first time [misfire, dry fire], turning his head away from his target. With his head still turned away, he said he fired again. Then he says he looked back and Jacob was still standing (and crying). He then fired again, killing him.
5. Heinrich said he wasn’t under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time and that his actions “were voluntary” and "of his own free will.”

After the Murder

1. Heinrich said he then went home to Paynesville but returned to the site a few hours later (about midnight) with a shovel. Heinrich said he dragged Jacob about 100 yards to the northeast of where he was shot.
2. Heinrich said his shovel wasn’t big enough, but he remembered there was a construction company nearby, so he went to see if a shovel was there. Heinrich said he found a Bobcat and knew where the company kept the key, so he returned to the site and dug a hole using the Bobcat, which is where he buried Jacob. [depends on how remote this is, and how close the Bobcat was. He could not tow it, so he had to drive it]
3. Heinrich said Jacob was buried in a reflective vest, red jacket and blue sweatpants.

Post Murder (about 1 year later)

1. About a year later, Heinrich said he drove by the site where Jacob was buried and noticed that the grave was partially uncovered and that he could see Jacob’s red jacket above the ground. Heinrich said he “gathered as much as he could” of the clothing and remains, placed them in a garbage bag, and walked across the highway to a farm, where he dug a 2-foot-deep hole in the ground and reburied the remains covered by the red jacket.
2. Heinrich showed police that second burial site while he was in custody. This is the burial site that was covered in the recent news stories.
 
People need to understand there was not enough evidence to convict him of anything relating to Jacob. When you question the deal made you are questioning the family getting their son back. Do not forget that if they had not done this deal we would NOT know where Jacob is today. Yes, it sucks that DH will not pay in prison for this, but honestly the 2 choices were either have him go on living with his secret or giving him a deal and letting the family have some answers and get their boy back. Please stop acting like they somehow gave this guy a pass on killing Jacob. They were never going to convict him without him saying anything and without him saying anything they could not convict him. It's what the family wanted and while not the best circumstance it's still the best thing for the family and was their decision. Just be glad you never have to make a decision like that.
 
From his confession, it sounds to me like he entered the driveway first, then faced the street. So he would have left with Jacob without DR seeing him.
 
From his confession, it sounds to me like he entered the driveway first, then faced the street. So he would have left with Jacob without DR seeing him.

And the boys passed him as he was parked, weird that he was initially parked facing the uphill slope of DR driveway rather than facing a road. And if he turned around in the driveway and DR saw him, he obviously couldn't have seen Jacob in the passenger seat. I think DH changed his story a bit. At this point, I give DR the benefit of the doubt. Doesn't make sense DH was on the hunt for a boy and parked facing a dirt driveway rather than a street that may have traffic. And to turn around in a driveway that had a light near the home and remain parked on the same driveway seems pretty risky.
 
Seems like half the moves he made were very risky.


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From his confession, it sounds to me like he entered the driveway first, then faced the street. So he would have left with Jacob without DR seeing him.

It's confusing. I'm just thinking that maybe he means he passed them as he was driving, him being the car the boys said passed them as they walked into town. Then he turned around at the end of the road and pulled into DR's driveway?
 
It's confusing. I'm just thinking that maybe he means he passed them as he was driving, him being the car the boys said passed them as they walked into town. Then he turned around at the end of the road and pulled into DR's driveway?

Agreed, some of what he said was confusing. I'm not entirely sure myself if that was what he meant.
 
And the boys passed him as he was parked, weird that he was initially parked facing the uphill slope of DR driveway rather than facing a road. And if he turned around in the driveway and DR saw him, he obviously couldn't have seen Jacob in the passenger seat. I think DH changed his story a bit. At this point, I give DR the benefit of the doubt. Doesn't make sense DH was on the hunt for a boy and parked facing a dirt driveway rather than a street that may have traffic. And to turn around in a driveway that had a light near the home and remain parked on the same driveway seems pretty risky.

This gets to what some others have posted about. He had a plea agreement. Usually, if you perjure yourself in a plea agreement, the agreement is null. So, in this odd case, DH has nothing to gain and everything to lose by lying. So, my take is: look at the statements that can be corroborated by fact and forensics. That is truth. The parts that can never be proven/disproven, not so much.

It sounds to me like he was a victim of his own impulsivity: abducting a boy and leaving two live witnesses behind ensured the heat was on. So, returning Jacob to St. Joseph would be out of the question. He had done that with the other victims. But he couldn't this time. I don't think he thought it through well at all and that is why he shot Jacob. The police car may have "spooked" him because it just brought home the fact that the heat was on and he had to get rid of Jacob, but didn't know of any safe place to just drop him off. Seems the simplest explanation to me. Panic and impulse control issues are not a good mix.
 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...acob-wetterling-ending-a-27-year-old-mystery/

So am I understanding this right? There were two burial sites? When he saw his red jacket showing he came back and moved him?
(So obviously he was riding by often to see if anything had been found yet. Revisiting the crime scene.)

"What did I do wrong?" broke my heart! poor innocent child.:tears:

Yes. First time was with a Bobcat. Second burial sight was across the highway, I'm thinking with a shovel that time.


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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...acob-wetterling-ending-a-27-year-old-mystery/

So am I understanding this right? There were two burial sites? When he saw his red jacket showing he came back and moved him?
(So obviously he was riding by often to see if anything had been found yet. Revisiting the crime scene.)

"What did I do wrong?" broke my heart! poor innocent child.:tears:

THIS is my biggest issue.

HE RETURNED at least 2x and was incredibly active each time (dragging and burying and re-digging and re-burying). IF the police were "watching him closely" after Jared's attack in Jan 1989 and/or before/during/after they brought him in for questioning in 1990, HOW DID THE STEARNS CO SHERIFF, THE BCA, AND THE FBI presumably miss his very obvious "tell"??????

I revert blame back to the Sterns Co Sheriff. They were in charge. They called (or dismissed) the shots

I'm fully aware we didn't have the forensic capability we do today (that conclusively linked Heinrich to Jarred) but fortheloveofgod we had good old fashioned stakeouts and police detailers on viable suspects.

IMHO
 
This gets to what some others have posted about. He had a plea agreement. Usually, if you perjure yourself in a plea agreement, the agreement is null. So, in this odd case, DH has nothing to gain and everything to lose by lying. So, my take is: look at the statements that can be corroborated by fact and forensics. That is truth. The parts that can never be proven/disproven, not so much.

It sounds to me like he was a victim of his own impulsivity: abducting a boy and leaving two live witnesses behind ensured the heat was on. So, returning Jacob to St. Joseph would be out of the question. He had done that with the other victims. But he couldn't this time. I don't think he thought it through well at all and that is why he shot Jacob. The police car may have "spooked" him because it just brought home the fact that the heat was on and he had to get rid of Jacob, but didn't know of any safe place to just drop him off. Seems the simplest explanation to me. Panic and impulse control issues are not a good mix.

One of my main questions, that cannot be answered by fact or forensics, is did DH really load the gun at the point the police cruiser "spooked" him. Or was the gun loaded the entire time? I think that goes to motive. My gut tells me that DH fabricated this part...and there is no way anyone can prove or disprove his statement.
 
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